Redskins negligent in situation of rookie quarterback Dwayne Haskins
By Ian Cummings
The root of a quarterback’s readiness
A rookie quarterback can have all the mental traits, but if they’re not in a situation that actively promotes their success, then they’ll find it difficult to live up to their promise. It’s not an indictment of the prospect; rather, it’s the doing of the franchise itself.
So far this season, rookie and second-year quarterbacks have mounted a wave of sorts. Kyler Murray is running things in Arizona. Daniel Jones is showing progress in New York. Mason Rudolph showed some promise in Pittsburgh before his injury. Gardner Minshew won two games in Jacksonville. 2018 undrafted free agent Kyle Allen is undefeated in Carolina. Undrafted rookie Delvin Hodges just won a game for the Steelers.
Haskins had a better profile than almost all of these quarterbacks, and yet, the Redskins refuse to give him the keys. Teams can ensure success from rookie quarterbacks if they work to cater the offense to that quarterback, if they give that quarterback their full confidence and attention, and if they create a structure of support. Not only schematically, but verbally too.
On-field reps don’t have to ruin a quarterback. A mediatory voice needs to be in the quarterback’s ear at all times. So when he makes a good play, there is recognition, and when the chaos on the field flusters him, the voice is there to bring him back to a healthy medium, and to contextualize the event as a learning experience. Good coaching supplements this. Bad coaching ignores this process entirely.
No half-measures are allowed in the development of a rookie quarterback. And that’s exactly the problem in Washington.
We’ll never know the full story in D.C., but here’s my take: The Redskins are prideful. The Redskins believe that by putting in a rookie quarterback, they’d be altering their system and punting on the 2019 season, and that’s something their pride can’t drive them to do. Thus, they repeatedly cite the “best chance to win” argument for their quarterback choices, even as Case Keenum is 1-4, with his only win being a nail-biter against the woebegone Miami Dolphins, and even as Colt McCoy is 0-1.
The Redskins aren’t willing to give Haskins the entirety of the accommodations possible, because they’re not willing to give up on a fleeting chance of immediate victory. But they don’t have the foresight to realize that their short-term aspirations directly clash with the long-term growth of their team.